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I am not entirely unfamiliar with Traveller, but I would still consider myself inexperienced in the setting. I own a PDF of the Megatraveller Player’s Guide and I’ve read some material on internet fora, Wikipedia, etc. I intend to review this product as someone who is not a new player of RPG’s but a prospective player of Mongoose Traveller who has not played previous versions.
I had two questions when I sat down with this book: 1) Are the rules any good for a science fiction game? 2) Is this product good enough to introduce someone to Traveller as a universe?
To the first question, I’d say “yes”. To the second, I’d say “somewhat”.
I would definitely play or run this game, but I do not think this product is suitable either for a true beginner to RPG’s or to Traveller. I like the rules, but my sense is that the setting is presented unsystematically and incompletely. An experienced role-player will find plenty of interesting material here, although he or she may feel that the default setting is too little to be used as-is but too much to be ignored. Some familiarity with the Imperium is required to really get into Mongoose Traveller.
The look:
The book has a plain black cover, reminiscent of the oldest versions of the game. I personally like it for the minimalist, retro feel.
The book is hardcover, 192 pages, including an index, character sheet, hex map, and two pages of advertisement.
The spartan feel of the cover is continued between the covers. Inside, the book has a clean, two-column layout with little wasted space. The book is entirely black and white. Additional information is included in shaded sidebars (helpful advice, alternative rules, or summaries) or footers (fluff text). Tables are two-tone, with an old-school feel to them. Information seems easy to find, and the index is helpful.
The artwork is mostly uninspiring, save for the starship illustrations and some occasional pieces. Each spaceship is nicely illustrated, and deck plans are provided.
There are some lackluster pieces of art, but all of the artwork seems topical to the section in which it appears.
The book retails for $39.95. It felt pricey to me, given its heft, but I do feel the rules are complete.
Chapter by chapter:
The book is a faithful re-imagining of the original: it retains the “Classic Traveller” mechanical feel throughout, as far as I can tell.
Traveller (Introduction):
The introduction shows us the Technology Levels, game terminology, and an example of play. The latter, incidentally, features the famous distress call from Free Trader Beowulf, a nice touch.
Four classic campaign ideas are also presented: trader, military, explorer, and mix-and-match. While brief, these are helpful for someone trying to figure out “what to do” with the game.
Character creation:
This is really the heart of the game. Traveller is well-known for its “game within a game” character generation. Mongoose’s iteration is an update of the early versions, keeping many of the familiar features. You randomly generate attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Standing), choose a career and roll to enter it. (You pick another one if you fail; worst-case scenario you get drafted or become a drifter).
You serve a series of four-year terms in the career, rolling for promotion, life events, and skills. You have a chance to be injured, and ejected from your career each term. Careers run the range from military-government types (Agents, Army, Navy, Marines, Scouts) to the gamut of civilian careers (“Citizen”, Drifter, Entertainer, Merchant, Noble, Rogue, Scholar)
When you’re done with a career (through choice or through bad rolls) you can choose a new one or “muster out” and collect your career benefits, from cash to shares of a starship (1% of its total value). The longer you stay in a career, the more goodies you get, but you run the risk of aging.
The process is complicated. I generated a few characters before I got the hang of it, but I still had to flip back and forth between several pages to generate a character. It becomes fun once you get the hang of it, but I still struggled to find an easy way to keep track of all the things that happened. A specific character creation worksheet would be a real blessing.
The end result is worth it, however. You really do have a skeleton of a character’s background when you’re done. You make friends and enemies along the way, including making connections with other PC’s. I like this explicit social networking. This interconnection with the other characters is reinforced by a “skill packages” section, where a party of PC’s can pick a campaign theme, and assign a cluster of skills to the members of that party, ensuring a) that the group has the skills to meet its expected challenges, and b) that each member of the group has something to contribute.
A detailed example of character creation is provided, as are alternate forms of character generation (point buy, “Iron Man”—where true to the original version, you can die with a failed survival roll, etc.). Rules for aliens are included at the end of the section, including the standard Traveller races: Hivers, Droyne, Vargr, K’kree, Aslan, alternate human species.
There are some problems: Some sample homeworlds or a clearer mechanism for generating them would have been helpful. Some of the Events feel like raw deals. Randomness in general can produce some odd results.
The setting of the Traveller universe seems imbedded in the process of character generation, although removing at least some of its distinctive traits (feudal-style nobility, the Scout service, etc.) seems comparatively easily.
Skills and Tasks:
The basic task resolution system seems straightforward enough. Roll 2d6, add modifiers (skill level and attribute bonuses), try and get 8 or better. Rules are provided for aiding a friend and timing. The attribute called on for a skill roll can vary, depending on the task. The skill descriptions provided here include typical actions possible with the skill, and their difficulty.
New skills can be learned, but they take a long time. Mongoose Traveller preserves the tradition of earlier versions by making character advancement happen mostly offscreen, during character creation, and not very much in play. In fact, the more you know, the longer it takes to learn additional skills. This probably explains why learning new skills is covered here, rather than in the previous chapter.
Combat:
Combat is an expansion on the basic skill resolution system. It’s medium-crunch, with rules for things like automatic fire, grappling, and the influence of Leadership and Tactics on a battle. Characters can take active defense at the expense of their initiative the next round. Armor soaks damage, and injuries directly subtract from the character’s physical characteristics. Mention is made of combat maps, but these are in no way necessary for the action.
Vehicle combat rules are included, which are slightly more complex than character combat.
Combat seems like it would run smoothly, and covers a wide range of factors.
Encounters and dangers:
A selection of encounter generation methods (civilized and alien) is provided. The alien animal rules seem evocative and flexible, with at least a semblance of biological soundness. Rules are provided for creating NPC’s: friends, enemies, and Patrons. Samples are provided for animals, Patrons, and generic NPC’s. “Random” encounter tables are provided, as are a selection of possible assignments from Patrons. Sandwiched in there are rules for environmental hazards like poison, disease, and extremes of temperature, as well as the healing rules.
Equipment:
Traveller includes a wide range of science fiction gear, in varying Tech Levels. Most of it is stock standard. There are some minor cybernetics and limited AI. Gravity control is possible. Power armor exists, as does laser weaponry. At the pinnacle of weapons technology, things such as fusion guns are available (although very expensive). Nanotech exists, but is considered outlaw technology. Bladed weapons seem to still have currency in the setting, because many weapons risk puncturing spaceship hulls or damaging valuable machinery.
A selection of standard air and ground vehicles is also listed.
My impression is that the technology is minimized in its social impact. It still resembles our contemporary experience, without altering it substantially (like in, say, Transhuman Space). Gear is important, but seemingly not all-important. Personally, I like this approach. It allows the characters to rise to fore.
Spacecraft design:
These rules seem comprehensive, if comparatively brief. I have not tried creating a spaceship with these rules, but it seems fairly easy.
Common spacecraft:
For those who’d prefer not to create their own spaceship (like me), the book includes 12 full-sized canonical starships, a selection that seems cover a good spread. 6 small craft are also included. Each ship has a nice illustration and complete (albeit small) deck plans. This should be enough for a beginning campaign. More ships are promised in the future.
Modifying these existing models is anticipated. The examples provided give a good idea of how to generate other ships using the preceding chapter.
Spacecraft operations:
This is a pretty comprehensive chapter, covering nearly everything you’d want to do in a spaceship from sensor readings to interstellar jump times. As expected, random space encounters are included here. The radiation rules are here, even though radiation exposure is not limited to space (stand next to a fusion gun and you’ll know what I mean).
Ships move between star systems via week-long hyperspace jumps. This is the fastest information moves in the setting, so it can take a long time for information to get around.
A major component of PC life seems to be paying the mortgage and maintenance on their ship, and the rules discuss this at length, including what happens if you try and skip out on your debts.
Space combat:
Space combat is a further variant of the vehicle combat rules, with some attention paid to the “what is your character doing in the battle” question. The chapter includes a good number of tactical options and roles for the PC’s. Boarding actions are covered here, including a “Quick resolution” option. Historically, Traveller has had a “age of sail” feel to it: the boarding action rules help preserve this emphasis.
This section probably could have been included as a subsection of the regular combat chapter.
Psionics:
This chapter seems a little out of place, in the order of the book, not in the setting. It could have been relegated to an Appendix, as it seems designed to be optional.
Traveller uses a limited range of psionic talents: telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, awareness (body control), and teleportation are the only kinds of power available, each with specific power stunts (like pyrokinesis for telekinesis). A psionic likely has access to only one or two talents. None of the powers here seem imbalanced or overly flashy. Again, I’m a fan of the low-key approach. A separate “Psion” career is listed here as well.
Trade:
Traveller is designed to strongly support a trader campaign. The rules are detailed, including 36 different types of trade goods (including black market and “exotic” options), and elaborate rules for buying and selling with a profit in mind. This breathes a lot of life into what might otherwise be a boring exchange.
World creation:
Rules are provided for creating (randomly rolling) inhabitable planets and generating sectors of space. One sample world is provided, mostly consisting of an illustration of the Universal World Profile (UWP), a quick notation for planet description. Traveller seems built on the assumption that hordes of worlds will be visited by the PC’s, so much so that they need to be neatly, and succinctly cataloged.
The rules are not explicitly designed to generate homeworlds for PC’s.
Overall impressions:
I’m satisfied with this product. I was looking forward to it, and I am not disappointed.
A lot of stuff is crammed in here. Rules-wise, it’s playable “out of the box”. I find the rules to embody a satisfying level of detail and scope. The basic task resolution is elegant and straightforward. But some of the subsystems can be complex. A significant example of this is at the beginning—character generation has a steep learning curve and has plenty of little twists and turns. The patience required is worth it, in my opinion. Complexity pays off with description.
I think Mongoose’s plans to use this as a generic science fiction RPG platform are merited.
Game play seems oriented to a mundane power-level, where you worry as much about your debts and cargo as anything else. Comparisons to Firefly aren’t unwarranted. I enjoy the low-powered, gritty, even grimy approach.
As a general rules observation, quite a lot of things in this game are designed to be generated randomly by rolling on a chart. This may put some people off. But even if one forgoes the random approach, there seem to be plenty of ideas to select from these tables. Traveller also seems committed the idea of adding little, but distinctive quirks to its random creations, making each product different from all the rest. That little extra detail adds a lot to potential gameplay, and avoids repetition.
This game is uneven, however, in its treatment of the details of the Traveller universe. Absent is any really in-depth setting information (or GM advice, for that matter). But the setting isn’t invisible, either. While there are mentions of alternative game assumptions (a more “space opera” setting, for example), the default mode of play is knee deep in the Third Imperium. It does not stand up completely by itself.
There is no introductory scenario, per se, although the sample Patrons are viable adventure seeds and presented as such. Someone already familiar with Traveller would be at home, but a true novice might be at a loss. I’m more in the latter camp, so I knew what to expect. The setting information is similar to the various iterations of D&D, where there are implicit assumptions made, but it is possible to play within that framework without referring to official setting materials, except that the implied setting is noticeably thicker in Traveller. Patrons and their random assignments more or less take the place of the dungeon in D&D, but probably require more work and experience overall.
If you’re willing to do a little setting homework or you are familiar with the gameworld, I think this game would be a valuable addition to your collection.
